Welcome back to MoneyCall, The Athletic’s weekly sports business cheat sheet. (Want to receive this in your email every Wednesday morning? Quick/easy sign-up here.)

Name-dropped today: Connor McDavid, Cathy Engelbert, Napheesa Collier, LeBron James, Bill Belichick, Cole Palmer, Alex Ovechkin, Ilona Maher, Jayson Tatum, Greg Olsen, LeBron James, Ndamukong Suh and more. Let’s go:

Driving the Conversation

Why McDavid’s not-so-big deal is a big deal

Monday, the day before the NHL started its highly anticipated 2025-26 season, its best player shocked the sports world by signing a deal to stay put for a relative bargain.

Connor McDavid wants to win a Stanley Cup so badly — with the Edmonton Oilers, right now — that he was willing to sign a (vastly) below-market contract extension to give the team a three-year window of financial flexibility. There is no questioning his commitment to that goal.

The 28-year-old’s new two-year, $25 million extension ($12.5M per year average) was a steep discount from what he could have made (20 percent of the new salary cap, or nearly $20 million per year).

In major pro team sports, this is nowhere near the norm. The biggest superstars get paid — typically the very maximum they are allowed (in some leagues, an order of magnitude higher than the NHL allows). To be sure: As they should!

🏀 LeBron? Paid.

⚾ Juan Soto? Paid.

🏈 Dak Prescott? Paid.

⚽ Lionel Messi? Paid.

🇪🇸 Aitana Bonmati? Paid.

🏫 Bryce Underwood? Paid.

🏒 Connor McDavid? I’m good!

A few things can be true at once:

🏆 We can admire McDavid for prioritizing increasing his chances of winning a title over making tens of millions of dollars. Banners fly forever. (Also, he has made almost $100M in his career already, so it’s not like he’s going to have a lifestyle change.)

🤑 We can say, “Not the choice I personally would have made!”

🤬 His NHL peers can be (rightfully?) annoyed that McDavid’s principles undercut their own bargaining positions, giving teams the opportunity to say, “If McDavid will play for a discount, why can’t you?”

Because this scenario so rarely happens in sports, it makes McDavid and the Oilers not just the most intriguing (if “win now”) team in the NHL, but also makes McDavid the most intriguing athlete in sports business right now.

Cannot recommend more Sean Gentille’s dive into the McDavid Bargain and how it compares to others across major leagues.

Get Caught Up

Big talkers from the sports business industry:

FIFA approves European league games abroad: “Reluctantly” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, given the unprecedented move to take a Barca-Villarreal game in December and relocate it to Miami. Serie A got approval, too. Our team explains.

LeBron’s cringey “Second Decision”: In the classic holiday movie “A Christmas Story,” Ralphie gets hoodwinked by the makers of his beloved radio program “Little Orphan Annie,” and it turns out to just be an ad for Ovaltine. That’s kind of how I felt yesterday, except replace Annie with LeBron and Ovaltine with Hennessy.

Big Ten, Inc.: Don’t call it “private equity” — it’s “private capital” that the Big Ten Conference is eyeing. Key Qs: What would they do with the reported $2 billion? Why do they need it? What are the tradeoffs? All good questions (and possibly reasons to pump the brakes!).

WNBA Finals vs. labor crisis: Following up last week’s MoneyCall lead item, it is absolutely brutal for the WNBA that its ultimate event is being overshadowed by a commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, who can’t get out of her own way, who alienated one of the league’s biggest stars (and power brokers, Napheesa Collier) and who is hurtling into a fierce labor crisis in *checks calendar* three weeks.

World Cup tickets snafu: Start with this — tickets are outrageously expensive. Then layer in that FIFA is getting paid on both ends of the resale market. Oh, and “dynamic” prices mean the rates keep going up.

The business of Bill Belichick: You can certainly point to the three blowout losses in five games, but I think nothing exemplifies Belichick’s rake-stomp as a college football coach more than UNC’s reported ban, then awkward about-face, on highlighting alum Drake Maye’s success with Belichick’s old NFL team. (Oh, and that UNC Hulu documentary series is a non-starter, which is the least surprising media news of 2025.)

Other current obsessions: The NFL “K-Ball” … McLaren’s clear F1 design advantages … NFL x flag football … The “Cold Palmer” trademark … the Arch Manning discourse … Amazon Prime Video bringing back “The Skins Game” golf event …

What I’m Wondering

How’s the NHL really doing?

My thesis: The business of the NHL is in a pretty good place right now!

• Labor peace
• TV deals solid (Rogers!)
• Marketable star power
• Dynastic top team
• 2026 Winter Olympics halo

I checked in with my colleague James Mirtle to ask if the business of the NHL is:

(a) better than ever
(b) as good as ever
(c) good, not great
(d) problematic

Here’s James:

💬 It’s either (a) or (b).

Relative to where the NHL was even only a decade ago, they don’t have many weak links. They certainly don’t have markets struggling to the extent that Atlanta and Phoenix were. Moving them to more stable markets with good owners has been huge. A lot of the Sun Belt markets are as strong as they’ve ever been. That’s really changed the league’s fortunes.

Question of my own: Where does new growth come from? Hockey still isn’t a huge ratings draw in the U.S., and the playoffs have been serving up a lot of smaller markets as the traditional big-city powers struggle. Revenue growth only really kept pace with inflation last season, and I think they’re starting to hit the limits of what fans are willing to pay in many markets.

Read more from James this season in Red Light, The Athletic’s free hockey newsletter.

Grab Bag

Branding: Ovi’s
The biggest question about Alex Ovechkin’s limited-edition cereal is whether to enjoy it or keep the box in pristine condition as a collectible. I live in the DMV, and my local Giant supermarket carries these, so I can attest that the box is very cool. (Shout-out to my cousin-in-law and die-hard Caps fan Ben A., who quipped to me that they missed out on the name “Russian Machine Never Flakes.”)

Promo of the Week: Team Barbie
Timed to International Day of the Girl on Saturday, Mattel is launching a line of Barbie dolls based on Ilona Maher and three other professional women’s rugby players.

Name to Know: Chase Priskie
He’s the pro hockey player who keeps posting his new teams to his LinkedIn. “RinkedIn” headline ftw.

Data Point: £462M
For the price of LIV Golf Ltd’s financial losses in 2024 ($590M), you could have a team of 47 Connor McDavids.

Trendy job title: Chief Basketball Officer
Jayson Tatum isn’t playing this season, so why not help out at Duke?

Peak of the Week
They had me at “Greg Olsen Youth Sports Mailbag.” (FWIW, my go-to sports-parenting advice: Comparison is the thief of joy.)

One-question Poll: Results!
“What is the best major pro sports league to attend IRL?”
Your pick: The NHL, with 40 percent of the vote. (MLB got another 30 percent, with the other sports divided among the remaining 30 percent.)

Beat Dan in Connections: Sports Edition
Today: 34 seconds
Try the game here!

Worth Your Time

Great sports-business stories for your downtime or commute:

Just published this morning from my colleague Asli Pelit: Private equity has a tough reputation. But PE’s entry into NWSL is a key piece of the league’s growth.

Two more:

(1) I’m really enjoying my colleague Ndamukong Suh’s podcast “No Free Lunch.” Great new episode with former NFL player Matt Forte, including discussion about financial literacy and navigating what happens when you finally get pro money.

(2) Michael Silver on the tendency for things to get a little weird when NFL teams head off to play in Europe.

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